


a closet full of other people

by moondew



Category: Todd Allison & the Petunia Violet
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-17 22:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3545588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moondew/pseuds/moondew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which hana sews petunia a coat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a closet full of other people

**Author's Note:**

> i'm fairly positive that most of this will be jossed, but that's the beauty of fanfiction isn't it.... who cares about being jossed when we can write about GIRLS LOVING GIRLS right? right.
> 
> s/o to my own girlfriend for being wonderful, beautiful and also for letting me know if this is even worth publishing. don't tell her i love her, thanks.

Pete. Petunia. Pete-unia. Peh-toon-yah. Pete. No, her name is Petunia.

Her name is Petunia and she has friendly blue eyes. They make her want to say something, anything. Hana wants to see those blue eyes on her. She wants to hold their attention.

 _Blue like the water_ is the cliche on her tongue. Her mother had taught her the water is stable. She taught that the water is deep and easy to get lost in. The ocean claims victory in her calmness. Her vastness swallows up sailors and fishermen and Hana sees herself as a fisherman in Petunia's eyes, lost out in the blue sea.

Petunia's eyes are more like the sky, though, and Petunia herself is more like a bird than she is a fish.

Hana's fingertips graze along the fabric. It's blue like Petunia's eyes. It is not an exact match, of course, because Petunia's eyes are a free blue that can't be caught in something like _fabric_. No, no. It's a pretty blue that would match her. Hana pulls it off the shelf, and begins counting yards.

\---

In the morning, Hana lays it out on the counter at work. No one is in yet, except for her, Lacey, and Petunia has come with Norah. She's going out job hunting afterward, but Hana has agreed to make Petunia a drink before the rush. When Lacey's gone into the back, she pulls out the previous night's hard work.

A blue coat.

A coat to cover Petunia's arms and keep her warm, should the cold ever come.

"I," she says, then halts. Made it? That seems forward. She moves as naturally as she usually does, putting Petunia's usual hot chocolate with extra chocolate shavings in front of her. She _had_ made the coat, sewed it according to what she had assumed was Petunia's size. She picked a mannequin that seemed to have her build. Petunia doesn't necessarily need to know that. For some reason, Hana doesn't want to tell her -- letting Petunia know the extent of her attentions that she has... 

It'd been a bad idea in the past to let girls know that they had Hana's attention.

"Bought it," she finishes in the same tone, closing her eyes and looking confident as always. Petunia's hands tap on the counter in a pleased manner, a grin on her face that makes Hana want to smile, too. Then, she looks away from the coat, up toward Hana. She hasn't caught on to the hesitance in Hana's answer, and Hana internally pats herself on the back.

"Can I try it on?"

"My, Petunia! You don't have to ask permission to put on your own clothes."

Her face lit up like the night sky during new year's firework shows. She stood quickly, clamoring up clumsily. Her arms slipped in perfectly, and it sat on her shoulders like it was meant to. Hana smiled.

"It's a pretty blue! I like it a lot!" Petunia's praise drips down to a part of her that Hana didn't know was thirsty. She feels like she's taken her fill of water after a long walk in No Man's Land.

"See, I knew it'd fit you. When I saw it, it reminded me of you." It isn't a lie, at all, either.

Petunia twirls for a moment, and the skirt that's two sizes too big for her clings desperately to her waist. She sees it, and Hana's smile falls slowly. Bringing her elbows up, she leans on the counter and taps a finger to her chin.

"You still don't have anything that fits you, do you?"

Petunia's smile falls, genuine happiness turning into a forced smile and an awkward brow raise. "Um, uh... no." She says it slowly and softly. Hana raises her brows, eyes half lidded.

"Well," Hana says. It hangs in the air, like a chandelier illuminating the room. The dark thought in the back of her mind is hit by the light and before she can fully understand her words, her desires come blurting out. "I'll get you some more, then."

"Hana!" Petunia says her name so fast Hana jumps a bit, a blush slithering its way across her face. "Are you sure?" Her smile is so genuinely sincere. Petunia leans closer toward Hana, eyes glittering happily, and she can only nod.

Petunia hugs her.

Hana knows that her closet consists of Norah's hand-me-downs, and a few boys' clothes that she'd had. Some of them had been Elijah's old clothes, some of them had been Meredith's old clothes -- her siblings' hand-me-downs, in other words. Her closet was pieces of other people, their kindness and love for her. 

A dark tingling in her stomach strikes up. She wonders if that's why she wants to give Petunia the coat, why she made it in the first place. Petty jealousy? She didn't feel it darkly as she had before. When she looked at her sister, she knew she hated her, almost as much as she hated that red haired man. It could not be jealousy, never would be, either. She just wanted to dress Petunia. 

Hana pats Petunia's arms gently, a confident grin on her red painted lips.

"Of course I am! I can't have you going about in those dreadful, ill-fitting clothes when we go ghost hunting, can I? What if we have to run?"

Fear flashes across Petunia's features as she pulls away from Hana's embrace. Her eyes betray her, but she tries to put on a brave face on. "G-g-ghost hunting?"

"Yes, hmm... let's see, they say in the alleyway _west_ of the windmill is haunted by the ghost of a one eyed man who was murdered by his wife's jilted lover..." her mouth moves, covering her. The sound of her voice drowns out the thumping her chest.

Petunia's teeth chatter and Hana pays it no mind, her face blank as her mind races. Excuses, more excuses. She collects them as one might collect bottle caps.

She isn't great at them, for as many as she has come up with in her life. If Petunia looked, she might see the blush under her make up. Her face is hot. No, that's the heat, she tells herself. She convinces herself it is the heat.

Petunia sits back down and Hana makes note that the pink fabric that's been shoved deep into the recesses of her own closet would look good on Petunia. Something above the knee, probably, would be good for Petunia. It was hot, too hot, and Petunia's legs were...

When Hana had seen Petunia's legs, Petunia hadn't paid it any mind, of course, but Hana did mind it, and she still did. When she crawled back home after her nightly hellish check in with Lacey, her mind would wander to parts of Petunia's body. Her lips, which she watched that morning while she spoke. Her wrists, which she flicked and twirled often as she told stories. Her neck and the collarbones beneath the shirt Norah had loaned her.

Her mother would snap her fingers in front of Hana's face while Hana paid Petunia's legs, and more, too much mind.

"Is it good?"

"Huh?"

"The hot chocolate."

"Oh!" Petunia takes a quick sip, and immediately regrets it, as the drink nearly scalds her. "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

Hana laughs.

Her heart beats, she can hear it thundering away. With every thump, she smells the cheap perfume Petunia is wearing. It'll cling, it always does. It'll cling to her clothes where her arms had wrapped around her, and Hana will go home, and peel her uniform off. When she's done thinking about etunia, she'll take her uniform down and her mind will wander back to her, again, the rosewood perfume permeating her senses.

Hana will sew her a pink dress, and buy her a pair of dark stockings to wear underneath. Petunia will hang them in her closet, next to Norah's clothes, and next to her brothers' clothes. Her closet full of other people, kindness from them at a turning point in her life. Their desire to help her out of genuine love for her.

Hana's love for Petunia will be next to their's as well.


End file.
